Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Scalloped Piping Tutorial......

I really like the look of scalloped piping. And it is very easy to make, not to mention quick and pretty inexpensive. I thought others may enjoy making their own scalloped piping....so I created this tutorial. All you need is fabric and a sewing machine.....let's get started!

First start with bias strips you have joined together to approximately the length you need. You really have to use bias strips here. The width doesn't matter so much. I make them wide enough so they go through the sewing machine well without getting hung up on the feed dogs. After the piping is finished you can trim the raw edges down to the width needed for the seam allowances on the item you are working on.

Fold the strip in half.

Set your machine to the blind hem stitch. On my machine I can reverse the stitch so that the little "v's" are on the right side and the straight stitches are on the left side. If you cannot reverse your stitch check your machine manual to see if you have a stitch like the one I just described. It may be called a "shell stitch." If not, you should still be able to do this with the regular blind hem stitch. You'll just put your fabric under the needle differently.

So...if you can reverse the blind hem stitch....then put your fabric in with the fold on the right side. If you can only do the regular blind hem stitch then put your fabric in with the fold on the left side. Make sure you are using a presser foot that can accommodate a zig zag stitch....I can't tell you how many needles I have broken from not checking the presser foot first.

Now we need to set some adjustments for the machine. Set the stitch width at 5.0. Set the stitch length at 2.0. And I have to increase my tension to 10. You may not have to alter the tension....check and see.

Position your fabric under the needle so that when the needle goes down it will go completely off the fold of the fabric and "into the air" so to speak. Then for the straight stitches it will swing back onto the fabric. Then start stitching.

Continue stitching in this manner....with the needle swinging off of the fabric and then back onto the fabric for the straight stitches.

After a few stitches take a look at the strip coming out of the machine to see if it looks like what you want. If not, make some more adjustments. If it looks correct...then keep stitching!

Continue to stitch for the length needed. When you are finished you can trim off the raw edges to the seam allowance needed for your project.

Then the piping can be applied just like any piping.....like on the dress above.....

Here you can see the piping on the dress as it buttons on the shoulder.

I think the scalloped piping looks great anywhere!!! Try it and see if you like it. If you have any questions feel free to ask!!! I'm no expert....but I will definitely try to help!!!

Susan....Thanks!! You could definitely put it around the bottom edge of a short sleeve. When you were finished you'd have to decide if you wanted to finish the raw edges or if you needed to apply a bias facing to finish the edges(that is what I did with the dress shown on this post). Easy to do....harder to explain with only words. I may have to work up another tutorial to better explain it and show visuals.

Oh I love it! Thank you. I've just learned to do my own piping in the last couple of years and really enjoy using it in my sewing. You can check out my sewing blog if you like at www.xanga.com/Jude1_22

This is great. They were showing you how to do the shell stitch in Sew Beautiful as a hem, but this is great. I love it as a "piping" without the cord (always seem to run out of the cord and end up using yarn or whatever I can find around the house).

Oh my!!! I am so happy you posted this Cindy. I've had that same dress cut out forever and never have finished it cause the scallop technique was going to take forever. But this is genious!!! Thank you.

Cindy, Tried it on a strip of fabric not bias with same settings, no luck, it really has to be a bias strip to work?Will try again tomorrow & let you know Love this dress from Sew Beautiful #80-Pascale real similiar to Cherry Williams basic yoke dress, just with no smocking. I started y Heirloom sewing on Cherry Williams patterns, just love them & Sew Beautiful & Precious Martha Pullen!!

Judy and Kate ~ I'm not sure what's going on with the photos. Sometimes I refresh the page and they all pop up and then sometimes they don't. I will continue to troubleshoot it and see what I can find out. Thanks again for letting me know! Blessings!!!

Hi Cindy, The scalloped piping is so pretty and could be used in many different ways! Thanks so much for your detailed and easy to follow tutorial. I will print it out and save it for when I can use it in the perfect way. But I'd better practice first!!! Thanks again! Many Blessings...

I love this! I like to put piped binding on my quilts and I am thinking that this will work great in place of the piping that is attached to the binding. I can just see this cute binding on a baby quilt! Thanks for a great tutorial.